Right. Of course. Out here.
Thank goodness our decisions are not made on the basis of WWJWD. (What Would John Wayne Do?) We aren’t privy to the intelligence. Based on the intelligence, the US and other western nations are prudently taking action to minimize risk. If I was in charge of keeping the embassies safe during a threat, I guess I’d rather protect closed embassies than open ones. There are valid reasons to criticize Obama, this doesn’t happen to be one of them.
No, I wouldn’t. I generally support Obama’s decisions in security situations. I’ve posted before that the guy has a pair of brass ones. He authorized the mission to kill bin Laden. He authorized taking the shot on pirates holding hostages. He authorized another raid to free hostages somewhere in Africa, I think. If he’d given a speech or otherwise communicated that this threat exists, but we are taking reasonable measures to beef up security, and otherwise doing business as usual, I’d support him again. I won’t support the decision to hide.
Very different scenarios, involving the closure of a single embassy, but touche. (I don’t know how to add the little accent mark).
Also, I imagine that during the Embassy Holiday there’s gonna be a whole lot of drone striking goin’ on, with the intent that by the time they reopen, the threat will not be in a position to claim a raincheck.
This is complete horsecrap. The TTP in Pakistan is allied with AQ, but there is literally nobody who knows anything about terrorism that isn’t made from whole cloth who would actually call the AQ.
If you have a source for that statement, they are automatically completely worthless.
Certainly nobody has said the Fort Hood shooter or the Tsarnaevs were part of Al Qaeda either. Hasan had some contact with Anwar al-Awlaki but they were always discussed as individuals, not members of AQ despite their attacks.
I’m not sure where you get this idea, but the Marine guard at embassies and consulates consists of a detatchment of between 20 and 50 Marines from the Marine Security Guard Battalion, armed with small arms and perhaps some light anti-aircraft weapons. An armored division typically consists of two or more regiments, which themselves comprise between two and four battalions. A division of mechanized infantry has sufficient power and logistics to hold a region or major metropolitan area. An armored division is, generally speaking, sufficient to press a self-contained major thrust or siege. No single installation could hold out against that size of force.
Stranger
Hell, most U.S. embassies would fall to an attack by a single modern battle tank if it were supported properly by a company of infantry. The walls are thick, but not that thick!
Woosh. My point was simply that US installation are usually very well protected.
I don’t know what it is with some people.
I’m Canadian. If I were American I would vote democrat and I would have voted for Obama twice.
I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh and the only reason I would ever watch Fox is because they dress their attractive female hosts in leather skirts all the time. But I watch with the sound off.
Edward Snowden took a giant dump on the credibility of the NSA and I can see they are desperately trying to hold onto whatever they can so they can keep spying on you and yours. And a democratic administration finds fear just as handy of a motivator as their opponents do.
I hope that after the epic tragedy does not come to pass people such as yourself hold your government accountable for using their powers in the interest of political expedience rather than for actual public safety. And that applies to any administration, Republican or Democrat.
I’ve got friends working at targeted embassies. I am glad their lives are being valued over symbolic posturing. I’m sure their spouses and kids are glad as well. Stamping visas and running aid programs is important, but not something people want to get killed over.
Makes me wonder what kind of risk the naysayers have put themselves in for their country. It’s pretty easy to gamble with other people’s lives.
SDMB is lucky to have an insider privy to the President’s Daily Intelligence Briefing. I hope you start a thread Ask the CIA Deputy Director or whatever. It must be an awesome job! Did you need to get special clearance just to reveal as much as you did in this thread?
So all AQ has to do is light up the airwaves with chatter and the West is paralyzed? Sweet! For them.
They’ve closed the Embassy here in Tel Aviv, too. However, there has been no general alert or Israeli government shut-downs, so I assume either that the U.S. has intelligence they’re not sharing with us, or that they’re overreacting as usual.
Agreed. The primary concern of an ambassy or consulate should be security. All other functions are secondary to maintainnig security of the facility.
However, this also exposes their contacts. Al Queda is not nearly as formally organized or structured as commonly portrayed, and every exposure reduces the actionable apparatus. The lesson that we faliled to learn from Viet Nam was that while large engagements against an indefinite opponent were more injurous to the aggressor party, the more yhou draw out insurgents the weaker they become. The United States is a victim of its own dependence upon foreign energy sources and a steadfast devotion to “regime change” in favor of “democracy” even in regions which do not have the prerequisites for democractic governence.
Stranger
Alessan: er, how high up are your sources in the Israeli security apparatus? It may well be that the U.S. has shared intelligence with Israel.
(I also certainly acknowledge that it is possible that we haven’t, but I think your declaration that we haven’t wasn’t entirely grounded in evidence.)
levdrakon: it’s a little like bomb threats. You can’t just ignore them, but you also get to a point where you can’t shut down an entire airport of civic office building, after the tenth or twentieth fake threat. That’s the hell of this sort of thing: there is no right answer.
Doesn’t matter - they just reopenedthe Embassy and consulates.
well, if the US shared its intelligence, the Israelis sure aren’t worried about it.
The US embassy in Tel Aviv is located on a very busy but narrow street in the downtown area.Only two lanes wide, with a constant stream of traffic all day long. The embassy building sits right on the sidewalk, only a few yards back from the road.
If there’s any reason to expect something to explode alongside the embassy building, you have to expect damage to the adjacent street, too.
So while a few dozen employees of the embassy got the day off because of fears for their safety, many thousands of Israeli commuters were allowed to drive and walk right by the building, with no concern for their safety.
I agree with the OP --Obama wimped out on this one.
I simply do not believe thhis ‘threat’. It’s just a way to say to Senators - ‘see we need to be doing all this snooping shit. Trust us.’
And yes - I’m a cynical bastard when it comes to this sort of thing.
Britain is also closing some embassies. And Canada has issued warnings to its citizens.
There’s nothing cynical about that. That’s the optimistic why can’t we all be friends, peace & love and sitting down in circles holding hands everybody including Al Queda being friends approach.
The cynical bastard take on it is that Al Queda is a bunch of murdering dogs that will love nothing better than to slit the throat of your wife and children and are constantly plotting ways to do just that.